In Memory of Those Who Were Lost: September 11, 2001

Today, around the world, many will remember the tragedies of September 11, 2001. Some will remember where they were the morning they noticed frenzied activity on television while a grave looking reporter recapped the shocking events of the morning. Others will remember a morning in Manhattan that was unlike any other; a morning that still weighs heavily on their hearts. Some will tell their story of narrowly escaping death on that fateful day while others will pause in somber remembrance of those whom they lost.
Pundits on the left and on the right will use this anniversary to remind people of the war, their opinions on the Bush presidency, and the direction they believe America ought now to take. I think that this is ok, but only to a point.
Tomorrow, let us debate critical questions of foreign and domestic policy. Tomorrow, let us criticize or praise the efforts of the Bush administration. Tomorrow, let our politicians return to the stump, let them make their arguments, and let the debate of this healthy democracy culminate in the sort of free and fair election that makes America the greatest nation in the world.
But let today be a day of national unity. Let today be a day where we remember those common threads of tradition, values, and principles that make this nation strong even in times of great tragedy and debate. Let today be a day that each and every American is reminded of their own mortality, of the profound blessing of life, and the incredible sacrifice of the courageous.
In memory of those who have gone before us. In memory of those lost on September 11, 2001. May God have mercy on us all.
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As a charter memember of the christianist right wing political class you have some nerve asking the rest of us to “unite” with you on anything. It is your side of the spectrum that has created the open sore of racial, economic, and political division that is now a near untreatable cancer for this country. You bigot with your bible thumping prononcements and scorn for the rational among us, now you want to evoke a cynical kumbaya moment? This is perhaps the most insincere post I have ever read on this blog. Pure garbage.

Rob Ryan

I don’t know, Scott; this post struck me as heartfelt. Maybe I’m just an old softy, but I was rather moved by the call for unity. We have so much division in this country. I think it is wearing on us all. I miss the days when politics meant little to me.

einsteins hairdo

I know I miss the days when politics could mean little to me. It used to be that culture was negotiated in all the different spheres of society – family, business, leisure, political, etc. – but now too many people, right and left, have made the political sphere a battlefield that determines everything else.
I have little doubt that Steeve’s post is sincere in its own way, but the unity and peace that he calls for is like that movie about WWI where the different sides come out of their trenches to celebrate Christmas together. If they really understood the message of Christmas they wouldn’t have been able to go back to shooting each other the next day, and likewise neither would we.
Scott’s right that evangelicals, because of our idolatrous worship of one political ideology (and even of one party) and our willingness to engage in the same rhetoric of personal destruction that is so common today, have lost any pretense of moral superiority. We’re just as dirty as everyone else, so who are we to call for unity? Repentance, perhaps, realizing that judgment begins with the house of God.

einsteins hairdo

I should point out that I think Scott is wrong when he writes “It is your side of the spectrum that has created the open sore…” There’s plenty of blame to go around, and liberals/progressives are as guilty as anyone else for shoving their agenda down people’s throats (often through the courts rather than through the democratic legislative process) and by politicizing culture with a scorched earth policy on several critical issues.
I’ve told my Democratic friends for more than a decade (most especially the day after the 2004 presidential election) that if they would just open up the party to the possibility of dialogue about abortion, including supporting Democratic candidates who were pro-life, they would see a flood of pro-life progressives abandon the Republican party. Many of us are closer to the Dems when it comes to issues of poverty, taxation, business regulation, civil and human rights protections, etc.
It was a secularist takeover of the Democratic party that made it hard for that to happen, and still makes some of us leery of trusting the overtures that the Dems are making right now (sorry, Jim Wallis). Denying Gov. Casey the opportunity to address the ’92 Democratic convention because he was pro-life sent a bone-chilling signal to the rest of us. Dems are going to have to work hard to overcome that stigma.
Republicans, on the other hand, are going to learn that evangelicals aren’t quite as monolithic a political bloc as we have been in the past, largely because the views so often espoused on this blog, while still dominant amongst American evangelicals, are no longer singular. We’re more diverse now, especially among younger evangelicals.

http://odgie.wordpress.com Odgie

Scott,
Now that’s impressive. You managed to fit every secular left cliche and ad hominem in the book into that little comment. Well-done.

einsteins hairdo

Well, remember the saying: just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean people aren’t out to get you.
Just because they’re “secular left cliche and ad hominem” doesn’t mean that they aren’t true, at least in some measure. Rather than get defensive, evangelicals, of all people, should be prone to probe for the truth in an enemy’s criticism. I’m not suggesting some blanket amnesty for insults and flames, but just pointing out that, after a lifetime living in the heart of the evangelical subculture, Scott’s barbs strike pretty close to home.
That’s not to say, by the way, that Scott’s tribe is lily white and pure. Just saying that neither are we, and until we own up to that, we’ll always be just another political bloc trying to increase its popularity and power.